1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the deposition of magnetic nanocomposite materials.
2. Prior Art
Magnetic nanocomposite materials are highly desired as core materials in advanced power inductor technology. Advanced magnetic core materials are needed to form inductors which can work at the high frequencies of up to 100 MHz. Soft magnetic nanocomposite based magnetic cores show excellent performance with low loss and high saturation magnetization at these frequencies and have been demonstrated in research laboratories. Currently used methods for forming magnetic nanocomposite materials involve sputtering from alloy or multiple targets in a reactive gas environment. Deposition rates are typically 1 um/hour. Typical thicknesses needed for efficient inductor core operation under high DC currents are about 10 um to 50 um. The current process can take up to a few days, resulting in a device technology that is not manufacturable in quantity on a cost effective basis. Also the prior art solution addresses only co evaporation of ferromagnetic material with fluorides, which are not good insulators compared to oxides. Further useful thick films could not be grown because of columnar growth causing unwanted perpendicular anisotropy.